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Finance minister Arun Jaitley has expressed the hope that the government
will not have to use the anti-profiteering provision of the goods and services tax (GST) and said prices should drop overall under the new regime to be put in place on July 1.
Jaitley said in an interview that there may be some challenges initially, but expects
companies to get accustomed to GST quickly, calling for patience as the reform is rolled
out.

“On an overall basis, the net weighted average of the whole consumption basket is less
than what it was,” he said. “So, in terms of weighted average it should come down.”
India is one of the few countries that has shown it has the ability to carry out structural
reforms, Jaitley said, citing insolvency laws, overseas investment reforms and the Air India disinvestment plan.

On some sections of industry seeking a GST deferral, the minister said the government
has been atypically ahead on this count.

“Normally, in a reform process, the private sector is ahead of the government,” he said.
“This time government seems way ahead of private sector. For an industry association to
say postpone it in face of a constitutional amendment was highly regrettable.”
The minister expects companies to pass on the benefits of GST. “There is already an inbuilt mechanism of anti-profiteering clause,” he said. “I hope we do not have to use it. It should act as a deterrent.” GST is expected to reduce incidence of taxation on goods by
providing full credit for taxes paid on inputs.

The anti-profiteering clause has harsh provisions including cancellation of GST registration of those not sharing gains.

He said GST — which replaces 17 taxes such as central excise duty, service tax, value-added tax, and 23 cesses —was an efficient and simple tax.

“There will be challenges initially,” he said. “There can be hiccups even in the most perfect technology but the beauty of a perfect technology is that it removes those hiccups as soon as possible. This is a reform that is in the interest of the common man, traders,
businesses, industry and the whole country. You need to be patient.”

In response to a question on the possible boycott of the proposed midnight launch ceremony by some political parties, Jaitley said GST is a ‘saanjhi vyavastha’ (joint mechanism) for the whole country that was finalised with the contribution and support of all parties.

“We have had consultation at every stage of the formulation of the new tax. At the time of the constitutional amendment, we incorporated suggestions made by Congress,” he said. “All bills have been approved by them. Their state governments have passed
GST legislations. Finance ministers of the states where their party is in power have participated in the council and agreed to the GST framework.”

He said India had created a federal institution in the GST Council and hoped that the tradition of decision-making by consensus will be followed in future as well.

KEY POLICY CHANGES
India is one of the only countries making such key policy changes, he said.
“The whole world accepts that if anyone has shown the potential to carry out structural reforms (in the current global situation), it is India only. We carried out FDI reforms, we got largest FDI in the world… The government and prime minister have shown that political-level corruption can be ended,” he said.

Days before the rollout of the landmark GST, the government today sought to dispel the notion that the new tax regime will be cumbersome and compliance- heavy, saying taxpayers need to file only one return every month, similar to what they presently do.

In an interview to PTI, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the notion that assessees will have to file three returns every month is unfounded and retailers or B2C dealers need not give invoice wise details every month.

“Eighty per cent of the businesses will have to simply file total turnover detail in return because they are all B2C dealers or retailers. Return filing is very easy, people need not worry about filing process, it is very transparent and is done by machine,” Adhia said.

Explaining filing of returns, he said when a supplier uploads details of sale invoices, a GST Return-1 is generated by 10th of next month.

The details from the suppliers in GSTR-1 automatically gets updated in the GST Return-2 (GSTR 2) of the purchaser. GSTR-2 is to be filed by 15th of next month and is just a few clicks on computer. GSTR-2 doesn’t need full filing of return.

“GSTR 2 is not to be filed by anybody. It will be appearing in the computer on their own account and they can confirm it. If there is any transaction missing in purchase which computer is not showing because the person from whom you bought has forgotten to put it, then you get a right to add it. It is an auto-populated return. Click it and accept it online,” he said.

Adhia said retailer and B2C suppliers need not worry about the return filing procedure as they have to file only turnover wise detail in GSTR-1.

While only B2B dealers have to file both GSTR-1 and GSTR- 2, retailers do not need to file the GSTR-2 as they have to only match with what the dealer has uploaded on the GST Network.

“Ordinary people need not worry…It is not at all complex and people need not worry. 80 per cent of the businesses will have to just file total turnover,” Adhia said.

By 17th of the month, both the supplier and the recipient would have to reconcile the invoice details and file the third return (GSTR-3) by 20th of the month.

GSTR-3 is combination of GSTR-1 and 2 and is computer generated. It gives the summary of the total output tax liability, input tax credit and the difference is the tax liability for the month.

“Out of three returns which are prescribed, only one return has to be filed by the retailer. The remaining two returns are auto-generated by the computer which is only a facility given to them to see so that if there is any mistake they can correct it,” Adhia said.

Adhia said only in case of B2B dealers, invoice wise details are required. “Those number of dealers are very few in the country”.

The GSTN will launch an excel sheet format for B2B dealers so that they can keep the invoice wise details ready and can upload it on the 10th of every month.

In the excel sheet, the businesses would have to give details of transaction, like invoice number, GSTIN of buyer, commodity sold or services given, value of the goods or services sold, the tax incidence and taxes paid.

The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, has already relaxed return filing rules for businesses for the first two months of the rollout of the new indirect tax regime.

As per the revised return filing timeline decided by the Council, for July, the sale returns will have to be filed by September 5 instead of August 10. Companies will have to file sale invoice for August with the GST Network by September 20 instead of September 10 earlier.

As regards traders, manufacturers or eateries opting having turnover up to Rs 75 lakh and have opted for composition scheme, they will just have to give their total turnover in GSTR-1 and no invoice wise detail is required.

These businesses will have to file just one return every three months, Adhia said.

Such returns are to be filed by 18th of the month in the succeeding quarter.

With less than a month left for the rollout of the GST, the ‘Karnataka Goods
and Services Tax Bill, 2017’ was unanimously passed by the state assembly here today.
Before Karnataka, as many as 24 states and Union Territories had passed the State
Goods and Services Tax (SGST) bill in their respective legislative assemblies.

As per the GST Constitutional amendment, all states have to pass SGST bills by
September 15, 2017, failing which they will lose their taxation powers.

Piloting the bill, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state has always been at
the forefront of issues like implementing tax reforms, including VAT.

“Even the World Bank has acknowledged Karnataka as the most progressive states in
implementing tax reforms,” he added.

Countering this, Vishweshwara Hegade Kageri (BJP) said the image of the state took a hit
for not being the first state to pass the SGST bill, especially after being the first state to implement VAT.

“Karnataka should have been first to have agreed to implement GST, especially after the state was first to implement VAT in the country… But this did not happen… This is one of the examples where it hurt the image of Karnataka being a progressive state,” the BJP
leader said.

Kageri also slammed Siddaramaiah for not agreeing to implement GST on earlier occasions despite 50 per cent of the states agreeing to do so.

“Everybody knows the hurdles created by your party (Congress) in parliament to stall the bill, which was your own baby,” he argued.

Taking an indirect dig at BJPruled states, Siddaramaiah said as many as 24 states and one union territory have agreed to implement GST, but initially Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were against it.

Siddaramaiah also said since parliament has already passed GST Bill, the state assembly did not have much scope to debate over it because decisionmaking powers are vested with the GST Council.

However, suggestions submitted by members will be presented during GST Council meetings, he added.

The Chief Minister said he did not attend the GST Council meetings because he did not get time and had deputed Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Small businesses won’t face the risk of their products being taken off online marketplaces

E-commerce com panies such as Amazon, Flip kart and Swiggy concerne about losing business after th rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) on July 1 shouldn’ have to worry about being for ced to exclude pro ducts sold by unregistered vendors.

The GST Network, which provides the new tax regime’s technological backbone, plans to start registra tion of new taxpayers soon to ensure there is no disruption in online commerce.“Registration for first-time taxpayers will open soon in about a week’s time,“ said a GSTN official.

All vendors on ecommerce platforms have to be registered on the GST Network.That’s because online market platforms have to mandatorily collect tax on any payment they make to a supplier.

The market places have been grappling with the matter as a d substantial number of vendors e fall below the tax threshold and hence aren’t registered with the tax authorities of either the states or the Centre.

Many of these are small businesses, some even operating from home. Another set of sellers were only offering taxexempt items on these platforms and hence were not required to pay tax or register with the tax department.

Industry representatives who recently met finance ministry officials to lobby them on the issue were told that registration would be opened up soon, an e-commerce executive told ET.

GSTN had only opened enrol ment for existing taxpayers who were migrating to GST from either value-added tax, service tax or central excise duty and not for fresh registrants.Thursday was last day for enrolment in the second round.

The third round will open on June 25. It is expected that registration of the first-time vendors will begin before that. While early registration will be good, the government can consider providing some relief to vendors, experts said.

“Alternatively, the government may want to consider giving a relaxation to vendors to obtain the registration after GST is implemented till say the first GST return is filed.“The first GST returns have to be filed on August 10.

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairperson Vanaja Sarna has said that small and medium enterprises engaged in trade, manufacturing and restaurants business will benefit under the new limit of the Composition Scheme for the GST.

“Everybody will get the benefit, those who are already listed in the services or the traders or manufacturers among services… without any change in the rate that is already listed in the section,” Sarna told.

On Sunday, the GST Council decided to allow traders, manufacturers and restaurants with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh to avail the composition scheme. The bar was earlier set at Rs 50 lakh.

Under the scheme, traders with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh will be required to pay one per cent tax, while manufacturers will have to pay two per cent and companies engaged in restaurant business five per cent.

“Initially it was up to Rs 50 lakh. The Section 10 of the Act provides it to be increased up to Rs 1 crore. There was a discussion about the difficulties of the small and medium sector and because the central excise assessees were actually exempt below Rs one and a half crore, so it was felt it could be a hardship to them,” Sarna elaborated.

“So the council deliberated a lot on this and finally came to a conclusion that it would be appropriate to make it Rs 75 lakh instead of Rs 50 lakh and that may cover the concern of the small and medium sector.”

However, the business which avail the scheme will not be eligible for input tax credit.

With 60 per cent of the country’s small traders yet to be computerised, wholesalers and traders are demanding amnesty from penal provisions of GST for atleast nine months.

A large number of small traders are still not educated about GST and there are expected to be teething problem for them in the initial phase.

GST is expected to replace hand-written receipts as traders will need to maintain computerised records and file returns online. For that they will need to upgrade their existing business format and link digital payment with GST among other things.

“We are asking for interim period for general traders for whom so far no interaction has been initiated by the government and they are still unaware of nitty-gritty of GST. Since GST is a new thing for the trading community interim period will be best suited to bring more people under GST net,” said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, Confederation of All India Traders ( CAIT).

He said that when VAT was introduced there was around three years as transition period. Khandelwal said that during the trial period no penal action should be taken against any trader for procedural lapses.

As per the GST Council decision, traders in the country with revenue above Rs 20 lakh have to register for GST. “Till now GST rules have not been completely been framed. There are many things in pipeline. Trading community across country need to be informed about GST and GST is entirely different kind of taxation system against current tax regime. So it is obvious that during its operations there may be procedure lapse by the trading community,” he said.

“Still 60 per cent of the small businesses in the country has not adopted computerisation which is a major challenge because GST is technology based taxation system,” he added.